Alan Turing: The EnigmaA gripping story of mathematics, science, computing, war history, cryptography, and homosexual persecution and liberation. Hodges tells how Turing's revolutionary idea of 1936-- the concept of a universal machine-- laid the foundation for the modern computer. Turing brought the idea to practical realization in 1945 with his electronic design. This work was directly related to Turing's leading role in breaking the German Enigma ciphers during World War II, a scientific triumph that was critical to Allied victory in the Atlantic. Despite his wartime service, Turing was eventually arrested, stripped of his security clearance, and forced to undergo a humiliating treatment program-- all for trying to live honestly in a society that defined homosexuality as a crime. This New York Times bestselling biography of the founder of computer science and artificial intelligence is the definitive account of an extraordinary mind and life. --Excerpted from 2014 version, published by Princeton University Press. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 81
Page 1
... Alan Turing's social origins lay just on the borderline between the landed gentry and the commercial classes . As merchants , soldiers and clergymen , his ancestors had been gentlemen , but not of the settled kind . Many of them had ...
... Alan Turing's social origins lay just on the borderline between the landed gentry and the commercial classes . As merchants , soldiers and clergymen , his ancestors had been gentlemen , but not of the settled kind . Many of them had ...
Page 253
... Alan Turing's war . He was doing what he had chosen to do , and was expressing himself , not subjecting himself . His mind continued to work away , fascinated by the problems , even during this voyage home . While briefly sharing in the ...
... Alan Turing's war . He was doing what he had chosen to do , and was expressing himself , not subjecting himself . His mind continued to work away , fascinated by the problems , even during this voyage home . While briefly sharing in the ...
Page 394
... Alan Turing's instructions , now Alan had the task of making Williams ' machine work . With the best will in the world , there was room for conflict ; the more so as the engineers had no intention of being ' directed ' by anyone . The ...
... Alan Turing's instructions , now Alan had the task of making Williams ' machine work . With the best will in the world , there was room for conflict ; the more so as the engineers had no intention of being ' directed ' by anyone . The ...
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Alan Turing Alan Turing's Alan wrote Alan's American AMT's arithmetic Bletchley Bletchley Park Bombe boys brain Britain British calculation called Cambridge cathode ray tube chess Christopher cipher Computable Numbers cryptanalytic Darwin delay line Delilah differential analyser digits discussion Don Bayley Donald Michie EDVAC electronic enciphered engineering ENIAC Enigma machine explained fact G.H. Hardy German Hanslope Hilbert homosexual human idea instructions intelligence interest kind King's knew letter logical Manchester mathematician mathematics Max Newman mechanical messages method mind Morcom naval Enigma Neumann never Newman operations organisation paper perhaps Peter Hilton physical play plugboard position possible Princeton principle problem question Robin Gandy rotor scientific secret Shaun Wylie Sherborne signals symbols talk tape teleprinter theorem theory thing thought took Turing machine U-boat universal machine Womersley word writing